Diffusion of Innovations I
Introduction
Explore how new ideas and innovations move out into society or within a group of people. An innovation is anything that is different from the way we do things now. Diffusion is the process of an innovation spreading out across a group of people (adopters), across a market.
Diffusion of Innovation theory was pioneered by sociologist Everett Rogers in the 1950s while he was studying how farmers chose new seeds to plant. Rogers theory explores how different groups of people approach new ideas, products, or services. He observed that no matter the type of innovation, there are patterns regarding how people decide to use an innovation. Rogers refers to this pattern as the path of the adopter.
Learning how this pattern works, and the deep foundational wisdom it holds, gives entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs enormous advantage.